It Ain't Over 'Til It's Passover

This Passover, break free from the ruthless hi-tech servitude.

I've noticed that every new hi-tech contrivance, ostensibly meant to make our lives easier, instead seems to place yet another new demand on our rapidly declining available time.

A case in point: my new smart phone. It's a calculator, camcorder, digital camera, game console, global positioning satellite navigation system, internet surfer, mobile telephone, mp3 player and personal information manager (PIM). But mostly, it drops e-mail right into my pocket, so that I am available 24/6 to be contacted, queried, corresponded to, criticized and spammed.

Tethered as we are to the multiple leashes of work, relationships and social obligations, when are we supposed to catch our breath? Whatever happened to the notion of setting aside time to pay attention to our spiritual selves, our families and our friends? Where is self-actualization and fulfillment supposed to fit in?

I got the answer when my adult son was rushed to the hospital suffering from acute appendicitis. He's a strapping 6 feet tall, and when he's not studying Torah, he can more than hold his own on the basketball court. To see him doubled over, holding his belly in agony and writhing in pain was more than my wife and I could handle. As the emergency unfolded, my cell phone rang, flashed and vibrated merrily on, oblivious that I had more important matters on my mind.

It took the better part of three days before my son would leave the hospital, during which time I all but completely ignored my trusty Treo. To my great surprise, the world survived completely intact.

When I was finally back to my normal, out-of-breath and out-of-my-mind self, it struck me like an epiphany: I needed to do this more often! I needed free myself from the shackles of 21st century servitude and tend to the really important matters of life.

Then it dawned on me that I had just discovered Passover.

The Torah paints a rather bleak picture of Jewish existence in ancient Egypt. They were forced into slavery, starved, beaten, had their children taken from them and they were compelled to do "avodat perach," -- ruthless work. Some rabbis explain ruthless work as being descriptive not just of the quality of the labor they performed, but also the quantity. They were not only worked hard, but also constantly, to such an extent that they weren't even provided the time to allow themselves the luxury of thought. They were too busy to think straight. Worse still, they became accustomed to their pitiful existence, accepted it and thought their miserable lives to be "normal."

Perhaps, had they been able to contemplate their own terrible conditions, they could have cried out in heartfelt prayer to the Almighty who may have hastened their redemption. Pharaoh violated the very humanity of the Jews by taking away their ability to introspect, the first required step of spiritual growth and self-actualization.

Like it or not, we're ruthlessly on call to someone for something all the time. And, we call it "normal."

The 21st century is certainly a marvelous time in which to live. Space exploration, computerization, the taming of vicious diseases are all truly amazing feats. But we also suffer more burnout, mental exhaustion, attention deficit disorders and high blood pressure than ever before. They are no doubt the effects of our own hi-tech servitude. Like it or not, we're ruthlessly on call to someone for something all the time. And, we call it "normal."

Well, on Passover everything comes to a halt. It begins with the destruction of the chametz, leavened foodstuffs, our daily bread. What could be more symbolic of the mundane, ordinary and routine than a piece of bread? We scour our homes and clear every morsel. The "normal" is simply unacceptable for eight days each year. Then we turn off our cell phones, close our places of business and sit down to a Seder with all the time in the world to discuss the Exodus experience. And, while many of us cringe at the seeming never-ending questions our kids can annoyingly ask the rest of the year, on this night they're encouraged to ask the four questions, along with any others they might have.

As for the rest of Passover, the simple commandment prohibiting us from eating leavened foods automatically creates a huge paradigm shift for a whole eight days whereby our regular routines go out the window. We are free of fast food restaurants. Free from the mundane obligations and vicissitudes of life. Passover is freedom indeed, from the spirit-stunting routines of modern life.

The fact is that each and every week we've simply got to take a day off just to catch our breath. That day is Shabbat. But in order to "clean house" and truly free our inner selves from the overwhelming clutter of life lived in the fast lane, we need the extra-strength, paradigm shifting power of Passover.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 5

(5)
Anonymous,
March 3, 2010 7:28 AM

Back to Basics or rather Feeding the Human Soul

I found this touching. We feed the body (although some are not so fortunate) but we often forget to feed the soul. We all need time to "stop and stare" and realise what is important in life.

(4)
julia,
April 16, 2006 12:00 AM

unionization

I agree with alexander. in the begining of the 20th century people were shot for rallying union organizations, mining companies kept their workers in slave like conditions and people feared trying to leave. every time the economy shifts there are new ways to enslave people, it is the base reaction of the business world and will always be that way. I say people need to start pushing for mandatory cut off times of work, jews may know what they're talking about but the rest of the world is still to afraid of getting left in the dust. people are into the health food kick, this should become the next step, anti-stress awareness. i have to laugh at myself though, i want to make the next step in health food to someday be people keeping kosher, but that is unnecessary of me. ah well

(3)
Anonymous,
April 9, 2006 12:00 AM

Absolutely

Things are so bad that I am due to be hospitalized straight after Passover - and I intend to take my laptop along with me - if there's somewhere to lock it up.

(2)
yaakov salomon,
April 9, 2006 12:00 AM

Love the spin!

superbly captured...the perfect snapshot of life as we know it...but one thing, Rabbi M, there is nothing "cute" about appendicitis...

(1)
Alexander Diamond,
April 9, 2006 12:00 AM

no more 24/7(6)

How about a new movement promoting 40/5?
A forty hour 5 day week. Those 80 hour 7day a week drones may make some big bucks but believe me, one day they will wake up and wonder where their family moved to and then they will wake up much later to ask where did their lives go. As for me...I'm off to the beach.

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!